


To Close to Home

by WingedChickadee



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Death, Explosions, Major character death - Freeform, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-25 19:21:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13219518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingedChickadee/pseuds/WingedChickadee
Summary: Guardians start dying. Not in the wilds, not off on some different planet. They are dying in the Last City itself. A murderer is on the run, and they will bring the Guardians to their knees.





	To Close to Home

No one expected anyone to die within the city, well, at least no one expected any Guardians too. Non-Guardians die all the time, they are human. But a Guardian? Never, not in the City.

The whispers begin throughout the city. Normal people that work in the Tower say something happened, A Guardian died. A guardian’s Ghost was destroyed.

“They always do,” the people say.  
“No! A Guardian died in the City.”

The whispers grow louder, and louder until it is a dull roar. One of concern and disbelief. The Vanguard say nothing, and the people feel afraid. After the Red War they thought they found peace.   
Oh how foolish they are.

It is a dark night, with a light rainfall falling on the sleeping City. A person walks down the alley with two friends, an Exo and a human. The Awoken laughs loudly.  
“I think we’re lost, dammit.”

The Awoken opens his hand and the little Ghost appears in it, showing the map of the city to his Guardian.  
Bang.  
The Ghost shatters into so many pieces and the Awoken cries out.   
“No! What the hell, this can’t-“

Before the shocked Awoken can move, he is on the ground. Silent. A bullet wound in his forehead. The EXO and human bunker down, one screaming at the Awoken. The human is sobbing and shaking.

The other screaming into their radio for backup, for anything. For just someone to save their friend. Civilians peek from their windows and doorways, seeing the Guardian dead on the ground.

The Tower is in mourning once again. The dull roar becomes even louder, and the people of the city grow more fearful They hear of how not just two Guardians were killed, but nearly twenty. Twenty guardians from what they hear is one person.

Zavala prohibits anyone from showing their Ghost in the City. They still die. Countless upon countless Guardians die in the City. Whether it is from being forgetful, or it is because they were shot then their Ghost was.   
Either the Ghost goes first, or the Guardian. It always ends with the Ghost destroyed, and the Guardian dead.

Zavala then assists the FOTC to investigate, banning all Guardians from leaving the Tower. Unless it is for a mission far from the city. He tries to protect them as best they can from the danger within the city. Saying that at least the dangers outside the city are known.

Guardians go missing. Which isn’t unusual, but, it is more than before. Zavala gets a bad feeling. It can’t be possible though. Whoever was in the City, hurting his guardians, had to stay in the City. There was no way the attacker could follow and kill Guardians that were so far from the city. It isn’t possible.

Soon, Zavala stops Guardians from going on solo missions. They still disappear. It is never to many, only a few every couple of weeks but it...it is enough to give Zavala worry.

He stops sending fireteams out all together unless it is a dire emergency. His job is the defense of this city, and if he must turtle and endure he will. The FOTC have come up with nothing, not a damn thing on this shooter. His Guardians are dying and...

It was a quiet day. Guardians were milling about the Tower near Zavala. It was peaceful. If one saw this you wouldn’t think that they were basically under siege.

The day was ripped apart by a blast that nearly flung Zavala off the Tower. He turns and sees the world on fire. Ghosts are everywhere, trying to quickly revive their Guardians. What is....no! No no!  
He rushes forward, trying desperately to reach the Ghosts in time. To put a shield up around them and protect them the next-  
He is flying backwards again, a deep pain in his chest. His eyes widen and he sees shattered pieces of metal on the ground. The light in front of him is gone, snuffed out.

His ghost appears in front of him, trying to heal the deep wound in his chest. He is too in shock to tell him to stop, that it is too dangerous.

There is a whiz, and then a tiny explosion. The light he was feeling is gone, and in his lap are the sparking remains of his ghost.

“Zavala!” A voice cries out and he responds, making a shield appear in time to stop another bullet.

A Guardian appears next to Cayde, his sniper rifle trained to find the shooter.  
“Found them!” He calls out.  
“Shoot!” Cayde screams in desperation, hoping to end this now. The fires around him and his shocked friend in front of him, spurring him to throw away the cockiness.

One shot and Cayde waits patiently.  
“I got them. They fell off the roof from the shot. They have to be dead.”

Cayde yells at the FOTC to go find that son of a bitch, and runs through the fire to Zavala. The Titan is staring down at his hands, silent.   
“Zavala..”

The Tower has many to mourn that day.

The shooter’s body was gone when the FOTC reached where it should be. It isn’t over. No one wanted to say what it could be. No one wanted to believe that one of their own was doing this. That was the only explanation though, the only logical one.

The quiet roar of fear that was burbling throughout the city turns into a screaming cry. Their protectors are dying. People could see the explosion from all around the city, and looked to the skies. No Red Legion, no Fallen or other new enemy. They are still afraid.

Some of cries turn from fear to anger, to discontent and disbelief. If the Guardians can not protect themself, how could they protect the City?

“They saved us from-“  
“Yes but look at them! They are dying and can not stop it. We need to take up arms, be prepared to defend ourselves.”

Word gets out about the shooter possibly being a Guardian. That only fuels the flames.

“I heard rumors that the shooter is one of their own.”  
“That can’t be possible.”  
“The rumors about the shooter existing were true, why would these not be

There are riots, protests. The city demands answers, demands a resolution to this. They are scared, they are angry, and they want this to end.

The Guardians are angry, the guardians are scared, they want this to end too. No one knows what to do. Their Commander is broken, differently than during the Red War. There was hope there from the Guardian who had their Light back. There was a chance. There is no chance for Zavala. He is on his last life.

Cayde is angry, Ikora is fearful, Zavala is broken.

Cayde makes a foolish decision, one he knows Zavala would shoot down immediately. But Zavala is broken, Zavala can’t tell him not to do something. The man may try, but he is scared. Zavala is changed.

Cayde-6 takes one look at the Tower, then heads into the city. Going to where one of first deaths happened, and he waits. And waits, and waits. Nothing. No bullets whizzing by, no explosions.

“Come at me you asshole! You never hesitated before!” Cayde screams out in anguish, in desperation. He doesn’t want to die, but he doesn’t have any other plan.

Someone runs in front of him, a sniper rifle on their back. Cayde doesn’t hesitate to follow, sprinting after the mysterious figure. He sees them run into a wearhoue. His ghost tells him this is a bad idea, but this person hurt his friend; this person killed his Guardians. He doesn’t care.

He cares. When Cayde can see again, he is on the ground of the warehouse. It takes a second, and then he is cursing and screaming out in pain. His lower left leg is gone, sparking with the remaining metal twisted and broken.

“What the hell?!”

“You really are stupid,” a voice calls out from seemingly everywhere.

Cayde tries to crawl behind some boxes, and then cries out again. His right arm shot off from the elbow down.

“Why are you doing this?!”

“Because I realized something, Cayde.”

“Oh yeah, and what is that grand realization you’ve had?”

“We’re better off dead.”

There is no grand monologue followed by an epic escape. Cayde doesn’t Hunter his way out of this. He is snuffed out with two more shots. One to his head, and then one to his Ghost.

Cayde is found missing from the Tower, and no one wants to believe. Ikora herself tracks his ghost, and find him dead in that warehouse. Zavala told her not too, that it was too dangerous.

“This is Cayde, Zavala. I am his friend and I will not leave him out there alone if he is alive. And I will not leave his body out there if he is...”

She is with five other guardians when it goes up in flames, when another explosion rocks the city.

Zavala and the Consensus appoint two new Vanguards. He stares at where his friends stood before, seeing only ghosts. He hears them everywhere, sees them in the small things he forgot to appreciate. The Hunter Vanguard does not have his humor, is almost too serious.

The Warlock vanguard is...he is just as smart as Ikora but there is none of her fury. Of her pure strength of a storm.

Zavala is more a broken man than ever.

It takes months and too many deaths to finally take the shooter down. It was unceremonious, and lucky. It was a last ditch effort, and a Guardian lost a ghost from it.

That Guardian was bait, and drew out the shooter. The found the ghost of the shooter, and wait. Everyone wants to shoot the ghost, to end the shooter. But more what justice, want everyone to see the face of someone who took so many.

When they revive, they are met with a woman with a twisted grin. The hunters need to be held back; she is wearing Cayde’s cloak.

“Let’s go.”

She raises an eyebrow and then collapses to the ground. Her ghost reappearing above her, and then there is an explosion. Then one final one.

She was not coming alive, and she took out the guardians around her.

The city is restless. The shooter is dead but the seeds of her beliefs have planted themself. The Guardians were better off dead, that they brought destruction and pain to everyone around them.

The Guardians do not rejoice. To many of them have died to do that. Now they deal with the fallout of what she caused.

This is not a victory.


End file.
